The Phoenix Suns have had an eventful offseason, and they might not be done with the roster moves yet. Although all has gone quiet on the Jonathan Kuminga front, the franchise are at least in the mix for his services. Even if their rumored package of Nick Richards, Royce O'Neale and four second round picks appears to be well wide of the mark.
There will be other options if the Sacramento Kings land Kuminga instead - including a player in California who the Kings could cut loose - but really next season should be about improving from within anyway. With three rookies and a pair of returning sophomores in Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro, growth around Devin Booker starts with those players.
Suns have to avoid ever trading for Julius Randle.
Owner Mat Ishbia appears to have learnt his lesson in terms of taking shortcuts to build a winner, and the departures of Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal were a painful conclusion to that. Yet even though the front office have gone back to basics and are trying to improve through the draft having cleaned up their cap sheet, their stance on Chris Paul shows that they still haven't actually changed.
Brian Windhorst was on ESPN's Hoop Collective podcast to react to the unveiling of the Western Conference team's win total predictions for next season, and while talking about the Minnesota Timberwolves Durant's name came up. It's not secret that Minnesota tried at the deadline and this offseason to trade for him, and that's because they feel they need to improve their roster.
Where the Suns come into the conversation is because Windhorst believes the Timberwolves signed Julius Randle to a three-year, $100 million contract this offseason so that they can move him down the road. That right there would look like the exact kind of get better immediately player Ishbia would be interested in, and the Suns have to stay away at all costs.
Randle was excellent last season and was a big reason the Timberwolves made it back to the Western Conference Finals. But like Durant and Beal before him, he is only trending in one direction now that he is 30-years-old. The contract isn't nearly as bad as Beal's for example, but that is the kind of short-sighted move to win more games with Booker that will again get the franchise in trouble.
The temptation would be to trade for Randle when he becomes available - and he soon will if the Timberwolves pushed that hard to get Durant at both the trade deadline and this offseason - because he raises the floor of this roster. The money he's on won't ruin the cap sheet, and the Suns are now out from under both aprons anyway.
But that would be repeating the mistakes of the past, and a player like Kuminga - for all of his known flaws - is the much better bet because of how young that he is. You know what you're getting with Randle - and he has had his fair share of injuries - while Kuminga at least has the chance to grow into a real player having never been in a different situation in the league before.
Buying out Beal wasn't ideal while the return for Durant could have been better as well, and staying away from Randle - or any ageing All-Star for that matter - is a must for the foreseeable future. Booker might become disillusioned by the lack of winning that is about to happen, but short-term gains like Randle are not the answer.